The Russian opponent and the Kremlin's main adversary, Alexei Navalny, died on Friday in the Arctic prison, where he was serving a 19-year sentence, the Prison Service (FSIN) said.
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According to Russian authorities, he suffered a sudden illness and doctors spent more than 30 minutes trying to revive him.
“On February 16, 2024, in Penitentiary No. 3, prisoner Navalny AA felt unwell after a walk and almost immediately lost consciousness,” the FSIN of the Arctic Yamal region said in a statement, assuring that emergency services tried to rescue him to rescue .
“All necessary resuscitation measures were carried out but did not produce any positive result. Emergency doctors pronounced the patient dead. The causes of death are under investigation,” he said in this pithy press release.
The 47-year-old activist was serving a 19-year prison sentence for “extremism” in a remote Arctic penal colony under very difficult conditions. His numerous trials were widely denounced as political and as punishment for his opposition to Vladimir Putin.
The Russian president had been informed of the death, said his spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
At various trial hearings he attended via video in recent months, this tall blonde with piercing blue eyes appeared thin and aged. He had a series of health problems related to a hunger strike and the poisoning in 2020, which he miraculously survived.
Prison had not dampened his resolve. During the hearings and in messages posted on social networks through his lawyers, he continued to insult Vladimir Putin, calling him a “grandpa hiding in a bunker” because the Russian president rarely appears in public.
At his trial for “extremism,” he castigated “the stupidest and most senseless war of the 21st century,” referring to Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
In his online messages, he jokes about the bullying he is subjected to by the prison administration.
In a message his team posted on social media on February 1, he called for demonstrations across Russia during presidential elections scheduled for March 15-17 that would allow Vladimir Putin to remain in power.
The Russian president's victory appears certain as opponents led by Mr Navalny have been jailed or driven into exile in recent years and repression has continued to increase since Moscow's attack on Ukraine began on February 24, 2022.
Everything you need to know about Navalny's death in prison
– According to the Russian Prison Service (FSIN), Alexei Navalny died on Friday after a sudden illness.
“On February 16, 2024, in Penitentiary No. 3, prisoner Navalny AA felt unwell after a walk and almost immediately lost consciousness,” the FSIN of the Arctic Yamal region said in a statement, assuring that emergency services tried to rescue him to rescue .
– According to the same source, the causes of death have not yet been established.
“All necessary resuscitation measures were carried out but did not produce any positive result. Emergency doctors pronounced the patient dead. The causes of death are currently under investigation,” prison authorities added in their press release.
– The opponent's supporters said they had not been informed of his death.
The prison service “announces the news of the death of Alexei Navalny in penal colony number 3. We have no confirmation of this yet.”
Alexei's lawyer flies by plane to Kharp (the place where the prison is located, editor's note). “We will communicate as soon as we have information,” wrote spokeswoman Kira Iarmich on X (ex-Twitter), indicating that one of her lawyers went there.
– Imprisoned since January 2021, Alexei Navalny was sentenced to another prison sentence last August: 19 years in prison for “extremism” in one of the harshest institutions in the Russian prison system.
– This tall blonde with piercing blue eyes appeared thin and aged during the final remote broadcasts of the final hearings he was involved in, the last chance to see him.
– In 2020, during his election campaign in Siberia, he narrowly survived a poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok, which he and his supporters attributed to the Kremlin. Transferred to Germany for treatment in a coma, he decided to return to Russia after his recovery and was immediately arrested. This poisoning, a hunger strike and repeated stays in solitary confinement had left physical marks on him.